Some recent experiences of ‘unanswered’ prayer have set me thinking about the reasons for the lack of answers. (I am sure that other Christians have experienced the same confusion as to why some prayers have gone unanswered.) At first I searched the Bible for some indication of why prayer is sometimes not answered. Instead of finding passages about unanswered prayer, I found that the Bible is actually full of promises that God answers us when we pray. Some examples: Luke 1:13; 1 Pet 3:12; Matt 6:8; Matt 7:7; Matt 18:19; Matt 21:22.
There are in fact some passages which discuss unanswered prayer. Mark 8:12 “He [Jesus] sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.”” The motivation for those who asked for a sign was surely not the glory of God but more likely a desire to trap Jesus and to discredit what the crowds were saying about him. James 4:2 “You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” When James speaks here about the failure to receive answers to prayer, the first reason is a lack of prayer and the second is the attitude of greed and self-seeking. If Christians persist in cynical, lazy or self-seeking prayer, then it is no surprise to anyone that God does not provide an answer.
Yet the prayers of mine which have gone unanswered in the recent past are not in the category of cynical, lazy or self-seeking. Therefore, I needed to think differently about this matter. This is what I have done here. I began with the assumption that because of my union with Christ my experiences are organically connected to the experiences of Jesus. That is to say, what Jesus experienced in his prayer life is what I should experience in my prayer life.
There are no unanswered prayers for Jesus. When he prayed the Father heard him. He prays in John 11:42 “I knew that you always hear me”. For the Father to hear Jesus means that the Father always answered Jesus. As we are told in 1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us– whatever we ask– we know that we have what we asked of him.” Even the prayer in Gethsemane: “”Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” (Mark 14:36) is heard by the Father. Hebrews (5:7) is clear about the fact that the Father heard this prayer. “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”
Yet the answer is No. The cup is not removed from Jesus, even though he is the perfectly obedient Son. This is no cynical, self-seeking prayer from Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is a prayer uttered in perfect faith and with complete willingness to obey the will of God. According to the ‘accepted wisdom’ of Christian teaching about prayer, this prayer should have been answered with a Yes. Do we not receive from God whatever we ask in prayer if that prayer is prayed in faith? And yet this is a prayer prayed in faith with a No answer.
I can imagine many people objecting to what I have just said on the basis that this prayer is different to our prayers, because Jesus had to go to the cross for our salvation. We don’t have to do that and indeed we cannot do that. That is true but if our union with Christ is a true organic union then his experience is our experience. Therefore we would expect that God the Father answers the prayers of Christian people in the same way that he answered the prayers of Jesus. This would imply that our prayers prayed on the basis of our union with Christ, that is, in Jesus name, would be answered almost always with a Yes. Many Christians can testify to just that. God answers the prayers of his children because of their union with the person of Christ.
However, if the Father answers the prayers of Christians as he answered those of Jesus, then we would also expect that at times there will be a No answer. That No answer will not be because of the prayer was cynical or self-seeking. Therefore, there will oft times be confusion over why that prayer has not been answered. In reality every prayer which Jesus prayed was answered, although the prayer in the Garden was answered with a No. Therefore, every prayer which Christians pray is also answered, even though sometimes that answer is a No. There are really no unanswered prayers, which is why the title of this teaching is ‘unanswered’ prayer and the cross.
To demonstrate that the prayers of Christians are sometimes answered with No in accordance with the experience of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, I offer the example of the prayer of Paul in 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 12:7 “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
This prayer of Paul’s is one which is not unanswered because Paul received a reply from the Lord in response to his prayer. But the answer is clearly No. The thorn in the flesh was not removed. Paul had to continue to live with weakness because human weakness is the place where God’s power can become evident. This experience of a No answer to prayer is related to the experience of the cross is also evident. As Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
Paul’s weakness is a reflection of the weakness of the cross. But, since the weakness of the cross is the power of God, Paul can say that in his weakness he is strong. Much might be said about strength and weakness, but this is not the point of this discussion. The point which I am making, and must now reiterate, is that the Christian experience of prayer is the same as Jesus’ experience of prayer, because of our union with him. We should therefore not be surprised if there are times when godly prayers prayed in faith and obedience do not result in a Yes answer. God is causing us to live out the cross in the Christian experience in a reflection of the experience of Jesus.
This experience of a No answer may well be painful and bewildering. There may be doubt about the blessing and favour of God. If the Father sends a No answer to prayer, does this imply that he speaks a No over the life of the Christian? The Father did not speak a No over the Son because Jesus is always the obedient Son. Hebrews 5:7 “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” Jesus bore the sin of the world and experienced God’s No to sin, but Father’s Yes was still spoken about his person. The ultimate Yes of the Father to Jesus is in his resurrection. Romans 1:4 “and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” We too have been given the Father’s Yes. Romans 8:31 “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all– how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
Conclusion
There are times when Christians experience a No in answer to a prayer which is neither cynical nor self-seeking. This No is the result of our experiencing life in union with Christ, who experienced a No answer in the Garden of Gethsemane. This No does not mean a No to the believer’s person. On the contrary, to live life in union with Christ is to be always under the favour of God. But, as followers of Jesus we are not greater than the Lord. He experienced the weakness and lowliness of the cross, and this experience will be part of the Christian experience. That experience includes what sometimes seems to be ‘unanswered’ prayer, although in reality prayer is never unanswered.